Real Islam is ?

Submitted by Silas (United States), Aug 8, 2002 at 17:01

Daniel Pipes states that, "It is a mistake to blame Islam (a religion 14 centuries old) for the evil that should be ascribed to militant Islam (a totalitarian ideology less than a century old)."

Dr. Pipes who frequently hits the mark, is totally wrong here. What Dr. Pipes calls "militant Islam", and others call fundamentalist Islam, extremist Islam, radical Islam, and so forth, should properly be called, "real Islam."

The most authentic biography available in English is a translation / re-constitution of Ibn Ishaq's "Sirat Rasulallah" by A. Guillaume, entitled "The Life of Muhammad". Guillaume does not add his bias to the biography as most biographers.

Prior to dominating the city of Medina, Muhammad had his followers carry out a series of terrorist assassinations. Muhammad ordered the murder of many people, including Asma Marwan, a mother of five children. Asma was murdered while she slept, stabbed to death by one of Muhammad's followers ("The Life of Muhammad" page 675, 676). Abu Afak, a 120 year old Jewish man, who was also murdered while he slept, (page 675), and Kab Ashraf, a Jewish man who was lured out of his home and murdered by several Muslims. Following that murder, these Muslims beheaded him and presented his head to Muhammad, (page 375 on). Muhammad rejoiced to see the head!.

Until Muhammad was able to carry out military actions against those that opposed him, he operated as a terrorist, much the same way Muslims in America have operated today.

What Dr. Pipes claims is a movement only 100 years old, is actually the Islam that Muhammad practiced 1400 years ago. As Muhammad grew more powerful, the killings grew in number. Eventually, Muhammad ordered his followers to "kill any Jew that comes under your power", (page 369). Eventually whole tribes were exterminated, then whole cities were subjugated, finally, the Muslim hordes conquered entire countries.

Dr. Pipes correctly points out "aggressive Islam" i.e. the Quran contains verses that incite Muslims to carry out acts of violence against non-Muslims. But, in his uncertainty, Dr. Pipes also points out Quranic verses that seem to belie Islam's violent side (2:256, and 49:13), and there have been times in history when Muslims did not act brutally.

If one were to do a deeper study he would find that the Quranic verse, 2:256, has nothing to do with prohibiting the coercion of people into Islam (it certainly was allowed by Muhammad to force people to become Muslims, even at the point of the sword, (for example, Abu Sufyan, page 547 on, and Abu Bakr's statements, page 668, and 669). Coercion into Islam was acceptable then, as it is today. Instead, 2:256 had to do with Muslims leaving Medina to be with their young children, (refer to the Sahih Hadith "Sunan" of Abu Dawud, #2627. This Hadith collection is available on the web). 49:13 has nothing to do with preventing Muslims from carrying out jihad.

Dr. Pipes sums his uncertainty by saying, "Islam's scriptures and history show variation". However, what Dr. Pipes obviously has not taken into account is that the Quran is a series of passages, presented over a 23 year period, and the later commands and injunctions take precedent over the earlier commands. This is the Islamic doctrine of abrogation – later verses cancel out, or overrule earlier ones.

During Muhammad first 13 years as a so-called prophet, he was weak and had few followers. Instead of terrorizing others, he lived in terror, eventually fleeing for his life from Mecca. It was after he fled to Medina, where he had a large group of men at his disposal, that he began to use violence for gain. Hence, the Quranic commands to violence occur primarily after his flight to Medina. And it is these commands, not the earlier ones, that are in force.

Islam is evil. It is not popular to state this publicly, but instead of coddling "Muslim sensitivities", we should speak the truth about Islam. We owe this to ourselves, after all, devout Muslims have just murdered 3000 American citizens some months ago, and promise more deaths. Don't we then have an obligation to fully understand the evil facing us? The Muslim's terrorist actions against Americans are not going to stop, and we should be free to investigate this brutal religion and call it as such.

Many Americans already know deep down, like the Secret Service agent knows, that despite what so many liberal pundits are saying, real Islam is really evil. Pipes hopes that it can be reformed. It can't. Violence and brutal treatment of non-Muslims who refuse to bow the knee to Islam go hand in hand. We are able to see the fruit of Islam and know that it is intrinsically bad. As time goes on, history will prove this position correct.

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The terrorist bombers in Tel Aviv are only hours away from New York. But wait, we've found that out the hard way haven't we? Or, in our apathy, do we still have more terrible lessons to learn before we understand that Islam is evil?

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